Near Infrared Spectroscopy Detection and Quantification of Herbal Medicines Adulterated with Sibutramine

There is an increasing demand for herbal medicines in weight loss treatment. Some synthetic chemicals, such as sibutramine (SB), have been detected as adulterants in herbal formulations. In this study, two strategies using near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy have been developed to evaluate potential adulteration of herbal medicines with SB: a qualitative screening approach and a quantitative methodology based on multivariate calibration. Samples were composed by products commercialized as herbal medicines, as well as by laboratory adulterated samples. Spectra were obtained in the range of 14,000–4000 per cm. Using PLS‐DA, a correct classification of 100% was achieved for the external validation set. In the quantitative approach, the root mean squares error of prediction (RMSEP), for both PLS and MLR models, was 0.2%w/w. The results prove the potential of NIR spectroscopy and multivariate calibration in quantifying sibutramine in adulterated herbal medicines samples.     

How online insourcing might improve EU policy development—the view from inside the European Commission

Perhaps policy‐makers are not the most progressive of actors when it comes to incorporating online technologies in their everyday workflow, but they are certainly not dismissive of the Internet and its potential for policy‐making (e.g. European Commission, 2011 , 2012 ). Could online insourcing, for example, be a way to improve the quality of new legislation? This article presents the current view from the European Commission (‘EC’). We have found that many of its Directorates‐General (‘DG’) are actively investigating into the possibilities of insourcing more and better policy contributors at the pre‐legislative stage, by means of online technology. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intergenerational continuity of crime among children of organized crime offenders in the Netherlands

Crime, Law and Social Change - As existing literature on intergenerational continuity of criminal behavior is mainly based on data on ‘general’ offenders and their children, the current...     

A socio-legal analysis of the Belgian protective legislation towards victims of aggravated forms of migrant smuggling

Crime, Law and Social Change - As many scholars have shown, and other than what is suggested by their legal definition, migrant smuggling and human trafficking are not always easily distinguishable...     

Institutional interplay in global environmental governance: lessons learned and future research

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Over the past decades, the growing proliferation of international institutions governing the global environment has impelled...     

Conceptualizing morality policy: a dyadic morality frame analysis of a gendered legislative debate on abortion

Policy Sciences - This article questions the use of morality frames and gender stereotypes in discoursing about abortion. The morality policy literature puts abortion forward as the paradigmatic...     

Remittances,Banking Status and the Usage of Insurance Schemes

Empirical evidence that migrants send home more remittances after disasters raises the question of whether remittances are used to self-insure, substituting for both formal and informal insurance. We investigate this question using a unique data set on the usage patterns of financial services by households in South Africa. We show that the likelihood that a respondent has a formal funeral cover increases with income and banking status. However, it is lower for individuals receiving remittances, which supports the idea that remittances act as self-insurance. We also show that other risk management strategies influence the purchasing of formal funeral cover. Finally, we find that determinants of informal insurance differ from those of formal insurance.     

Resilience and Criminal Justice: Unsafe at Low Altitude

Resilience is increasingly featuring in crime and justice policy discussions. It appears in the fusion of military, security and criminal justice. It offers an alignment by which individual actors are to be adaptive to the uncertain conditions of high risk societies. This article unpacks the application of resilience to criminal justice to reveal at least one negative implication: by placing the focus on self-directed change resilient subjects have limited transformative power. The concept of resilience involves discounting a longer view that challenges the dominant social institutions and orders of neoliberalism. In contrast, we propose the dignified subject and the re-assertion of the discounted institutional context at a level above the individual and community. This analysis supports renewing the transformative agenda of a critical criminology.